Planning and transport. The Leeds approach

Planning & Transport— the Leeds Approach

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Foreword

In 1 965 the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry
of Housing and Local Government and the
Leeds City Council undertook a joint study to
consider the application of integrated parkang,
traffic management and public transport policies
within the framework of land-use planning, and
to consider the design and improvement of
environmental areas from which extraneous
traffic could be excluded as a result of these
policies.

It is inherent in the Leeds approach that the
overall land-use planning of the area cannot be
carried out in isolation from the planning of
roads, traffic management and public transport.
The essential features are :

The plan of action outlined in this report, which
has been prepared by the Leeds City Council, has
been evolved to meet the needs of a centralised
City with increasing employment in its central
areas. It has been shaped by the City's topo-
graphy. history and general character. In preparing
their traffic and transport plans we recognise that
other towns and cities will need to seek solutions
to their own special problems, but we think that
this report will be of interest to all local planning
authorities as a stimulus to thought and action.

(a) The assessment of the nature, scale and
realistic programming of the primary road
network which can be built in the future;

(b) The fullest use of public transport;

(c) The use of parking policies to maintain a
balance between the volume of traffic using
the network and its capacity;

(d) The use of traffic management to produce an
effective circulation system, particularly by
increasing the capacity of those streets which
have to be retained as part of the primary
network;

(e) The exclusion of extraneous traffic from
environmental areas, particularly the central
area ; and in residential areas the exploitation
of the opportunities offered by traffic
management and public transport in the
design of new residential areas and in the

MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND LOCAL

GOVERNMENT

MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT

improvement of established, older areas.

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THE LEEDS CITY COUNCIL
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT

MINISTRY OF HOUSING AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Planning & Transport -the Leeds Approach

LONDON: HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE 1969

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Contents

THE LEEDS APPROACH page^

The City pepe t

The Opporiuritiee and Scope for Renewal pepe S

THE PLANNING OBJECTIVES page 10
Objectives page 10

The Public Transport System: road or rail ? page 11
The Primary Road Networit pagell
Implications of tfie Network page 1 2

1 Regional influence: the sodo-econamic region page!

2 Regional influence rtravei to work in West Yorkshire page 3

3 Centrelbusinessand industrial areas page*

4 Redeveloprnentareas page!

5 Roadsand Communities page13

6 Stagelloftheinner Ring Road pagelS

7 Use of existing roads paga1€

8 Mode of travel to work as foreseen for 1981 pagas^S
9.10 Pubifctranspon pages 20. 21

11 Roadsand Industry page22

1 2 Central Area masterplan : pedestrian circulation page 26

1 3 Central Area masterplan ; interim liatfio management scheme

14.15 Central Ares masterplan tpubliclransporl pages 2i. 29
16 Publictransporlandnousing pege31
17.18 Halton neighbourhood centre peges34,38
19 Pedestrian routes page 37

A Parking Policy : the balance between public transport and
private transport page 1 7
Public Transport page 19

Pisnning and traffic management in the Cenirai Area page 23

Traffic Management and Development Control on the

Pnmatv Network page 30

The Planning of New Residential Areas page 30

The Problem of Established Residential Areas page 30

SUMMARY page 33

1 Typical property in a slum clearance ares at Kirkstall. Leeds

2 Central comprehensive devsiopmentaraes page 3

3 Holbeckfcllowingredeyelopmentand showing the landscaped
'HolbeckMoor' pageS

4 Stage lofthe Inner Ring Road psgelA

5 TrafficandoBdeatrianconflrctin Briggale. Leeds page24

6 Astreetconvertedto pedestrian use in Essen, Germany pegs 25

7 Traffic end pedestrian conflict in a suburban shopping area at
Herehills. Leeds page32

8 TheorimarypedestrianrouteatWhinmoor, Leads pege33
Acknowledgements:

Plates 1.4, 5 97 J. S. Randall. MiniSIry of Transport
Plate 2 C, H. Wood (Bradford) Ltd.

Plates 3 9 8 Leeds City Council
Plate 6 German Embassy

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The Leeds Approach

Leeds, a city with a population of over half a
million people, industrial in character, largely de-
veloped during the latter half of the 1 9th century,
has similar renewal and redevelopment prob-
lems to those of other major towns and cities in
the country. Common problems may be listed as
follows:

(1 )The necessity for extensive renewal of the
urban fabric and the provision of an adequate
transportation system.

(2) The necessity for the preparation of a
realistic plan capable of being implemented
over a reasonable time scale within the
resources which are likely to be available.

(3) The reconciliation of the need for greatly
increased mobility with other aspects of
amenity.

(4) The necessity to exploit to the full the
advantages of comprehensive development in
those areas to be renewed while ensuring
that the best use can be made of the large
areas which will remain substantially un-
changed so that these areas make a full
contribution to the overall plan.

(5) Preparing a plan phased in such a way that
development and redevelopment makes
sense as it goes along.

The problems are similar in other towns and
some of the policies adopted in these areas will
be similar to those adopted in Leeds whereas
some will require to be very different because of
the differing characteristics of the area. What
is important is an analytical approach and a
sensible recognition of what can and what cannot

be achieved. It is felt that other Authorities may
find it of interest and some value to study the way
in which in one city the various factors and con-
ditions have been taken into account and pro-
gressive policies adopted.

The City

Leeds is the regional centre of a socio-
economic region with a population of over
3,000,000 covering most of Yorkshire from
Northallerton in the north to Barnsley in the south
and from the Pennine Watershed in the west to
the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coast in the east.

It Is also the largest city of an area which is
shown in Figure 1 in what has come to be called
the West Yorkshire Conurbation. It will be seen,
however, that this conurbation differs from
the Metropolitan, South East Lancashire. West
Midlands and Merseyside Conurbations in
that the conurbation consists of a number of
larger or smaller reasonably well-defined towns,
each with a fairly well-defined sphere of in-
fluence. See Figure 2. Although commuting
from outside into the towns does take place the
large majority of the travel to work movements
in the large towns are internal. Leeds can thus be
regarded more as a free-standing town for the
purposes of its own internal planning. The
administrative area of the city of 63i square miles
has a population of just over half a million and
contains substantial areas of open land.

The road system is markedly radial in

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Principal Towns

Surrounding Towns over
50,000 population

Work Journey Hinterlands;

( More (hen 5% of Workers
travel into town.)

Leeds

Surrounding Principal Towns

Figure 2 Regional influence; Travel to work

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[ I Central Business Area
Industrial Area
Existing Roads

-yorary Digitisation Unit

movements mainly geared to water and rail
transport and with most people making their own
movements on foot or on the developing forms
of public passenger transport which used the
radial road system. The urban fabric of the
town was made for the transport systems then
available.

Energetic slum clearance has removed many
thousands of unfit houses but many remain
like those in Plate 1 which, because of age
and obsolescence, would require to
be included in any long-term programme
of renewal. Based on the surveyfor
the Development Plan Review undertaken in
1 961 and subsecuent progress in clearance it is
estimated that there were some 80,000 dwell-
ings remaining in this category in April 1968,
There is a similar need for renewal of industrial
premises where although many properties are of
more modern construction there is still a number
of premises built to sen/e very different needs
from those which prevail today. Many of these
older premises are situated in the large in-
dustrial area immediately south of the river and
the central business area and here the irregular
patterns of the streets, their inadequate widths,
and the intermixture with housing make it
impossible to provide adequate arrangements for
vehicular access, or for the modernisation of
methods of production, goods handling and
storage. To take advantage of modern tech-
nological developments some industries must
be allowed to expand on existing sites and others
must be relocated. The possibility of the intro-
duction of new growth industries must not be
overlooked in long-term future planning.
Although increasing demand for commercial
premises has meant that a good deal of rebuilding
has taken place in the city centre, there are still
large areas where the same pattern of inadequate
streets and outworn office and commercial
property calls for large scale redevelopment.

although, as in other places, individual rebuilding
in the 20th century has introduced premises
which, while conforming to the old street pattern,
are themselves in good condition and increase
the cost of providing a cleared area for
redevelopment.

To a very large extent these needs and

opportunities for renewal occur within a radius of
two miles from the city centre. This in turn
is the area within which the ever increasing
pressures of modern traffic are most acutely felt,
and where the need to develop a road system
better suited to present day needs is greatest. The
areas for redevelopment are shown in Figure 4.
Plans for the centre are shown also in Plate 2.

The need for extensive renewal at the heart of
the city and in the area immediately surrounding
it thus offers a two-fold opportunity— for building
anew in a newly created environment, such as
that shown in Plate 3, and for using some of the
cleared land to satisfy the extensive demand on
land of an up-to-date system of highways
and communications.

Very early, Leeds recognised that the most
efficient and acceptable method of undertaking
renewal on the scale required would mean the
establishment of a programme which could
be worked to consistently over a period of years.
In order to establish this programme a
fundamental condition precedent was considered
to be the establishment of clear-sighted
long-term objectives.

Redevelopment areas

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The Planning Objectives

Introduction

The first Development Plan for the City of Leeds
was approved in 1955. It was based on survey
material and the conditions prevailing in 1 949-50.
As economic conditions improved after the
long period of the war and preceding financial
recession with a good deal of new building
taking place and a large increase in road traffic it
became clear that a complete and systematic
reappraisal of planning policies was needed for a
review of the Development Plan. New policies
were developed in the form of a series of policy
reports approved by the Council between 1 959
and 1 962 and it is interesting to note that the
basic underlying theme is in many ways similar
to that of the Buchanan Report (1 963) except
perhaps in the greater emphasis on the role of
public transport and complementary planning
policies in the Leeds Approach.

Objectives

(a) One of the major factors which has in-
fluenced thinking in Leeds has been the accept-
able rate of renewal. This is related in part to an
acceptable overall scale of investment by the
Corporation and also the likely resources of the
Construction Industry. Although it cannot be
quantified, an acceptable rate of renewal must
also be related to an acceptable scale of dis-
ruption of the residential, industrial and com-
mercial life of the city. This life has to be
maintained while reconstruction takes place, as
homes and jobs are relocated to make room
for new development, large-scale alterations
are made to public utilities and major road
projects are carried out, involving inevitable,
temporary delays and diversions fortraffic.

(b) Major decentralisation of the main business,
commercial and industrial life of the compact
central areas had not been considered
feasible although there is some dispersal of office
development to suburban centres and some
spread of industrial employment where this can be
provided with good access from new residential
estates as the road and public transport plan is
developed. Apart from the limitations imposed

by the time scale of the plan and the economic
constraints a satisfactory redevelopment in the
central areas can be achieved only so long
as there is a sufficient demand for accom-
modation there. A higher level of generation of
movement is also more conducive to the develop-
ment of an efficient public transport system.

(c) Some, but no large increase in the population
of Leeds within the present urban fence is en-
visaged. Natural increase in population, expansion
of industry and the continued development

of Leeds as a regional centre are estimated to
lead to an increase in the total number of workers
travelling to employment, within an expanded
central business and industrial area, from 140.000
in 1 961 to 1 63,000 in 1 981 . These figures assume
some continuation of the present growth of towns
and communities within the green belt but beyond
the present administrative boundaries of the city.

(d) It must be a basic requirement of the transport
and traffic plan that it should cater smoothly

for the future peak hour travel demand, A trans-
portation system with the capacity to handle
peak hour traffic movements efficiently will have
an adequate margin of capacity to meet all
future demands of off-peak traffic,

(e) Environmental improvement both in the
centre! area and in the residential and industrial
areas must form part of the integrated plan for
renewal and for transportation. Already schemes
are taking shape in the city which have resulted in
the amelioration of the amenities because of some

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insulation from the adverse effects of traffic.

(f) There are two potentially conflicting objectives
in long-term planning. The first is to take clear
and firm decisions on the basis of a thorough
and careful analysis of the facts and an intelligent
assessment of future trends. This enables a firm
and certain rolling programme to be planned and
executed. The second, in a situation which is
constantly changing, is to preserve as much free-
dom for future choice of action as possible.

The city has already made considerable
progress m the construction of its primary road
network and, through development control, land
uses consistent with its future form are being
established on the basis of the overall plan.
Inevitably, the options for a change of plan are
becoming narrower. Nevertheless, it is important
to keep options open where possible and to
recognise where long-term changes in land
use and in the management aspects of the plan
could be introduced to deal with possible
changes in circumstances.

The PublicTransport System; Road or Rail?

about the pattern, scele and capacity of the high-
way network to be provided are thus of crucial
importance in the evolution of the city's plans.

Equally important is the adoption of an overall
transportation plan which will ensure that the
peak demand on the highway system will be
below its capacity and therefore that public road
transport will not be impeded in its function of
providing an efficient service.

The Primary Road Network

A major improvement and development of the
primary road network is necessary so that it
can meet the maximum demand along the travel
desire lines revealed through surveys, taking
into account the consequences of foreseeable
and planned changes in land use. The layout is
also materially influenced by objectives set for
the development of the central area and the
improvement of the environment here and in
other areas of the city.

There are, however, important considerations
which influence the planning of the network, and
set limits to what is practicable. The main ones

Leeds is a compact city; only a small proportion
of the working population lives more than five
miles from the city centre. With such relatively
short distances, the distance between the public
transport terminals and the home or work place
contributes significantly to the total journey time.
Because of this, and the greater penetration and
flexibility possible with public road transport the
city has concluded that the development of this
form of transport is more appropriate to condi-
tions in Leeds than the extensive employment
of local rail services or the provision of other
forms of fixed mass transit facilities within the
range of options at present available.

This means that the city’s transportation system
will be essentially road-based, and decisions

(a) The desirability of completing substantially
the basic road network within a period of about
twenty years. This consideration arises not only
because of the anticipated grovrth of vehicle
ownership and the great difference between
present and planned levels of traffic, but also
because a network of this character is only fully
effective when it is complete and operating as a ,
whole. An earlier completion date is also necessary
because if planning is to be based as in Leeds
on some limitation of the use of the private
motor car for work journeys then the maximum
demand upon the road network will be reached at
an earlier date than would be the case if all traffic
movements continued to grow with the rise in

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car ownership.

(b) Accepting that there must be a realistic pro-
gramme for the primary road network then its
scale will be influenced by the amount of work
which can be designed, constructed and financed
within the period of the programme. The level of
capital investment is not only a question of en
allocation of capital resources but is also an im
portant element in the city's overall financial policy
not only in the effect upon the rates but also in its
relationship to her other major demands for capital
expenditure such as education, housing and
social services. It has to be constantly borne in
mind that the development of the highway net-
work is only one element, albeit a vital one, in

The whole process of urban renewal.

(c) Because it is essential to maintain the life

of the city while renewal is being undertaken, it is
important that opportunities for relocation and
rebuilding of displaced premises are given and
there IS some limit to the quantum of disturbance
atanytime.

(d) There are also practical design limitations on
the frequency and sire of interchanges which
have a bearing on the overall scale of the network
and the acceptable scale of traffic demand.

(e) Much of the main roadworks attract grant
from the Ministry of Transport, and it must be
recognised that the only programme which will
be capable of achievement is one which is
consistent with a realistic assessment of the
resources likely to be available over the years from
this source. The network decided upon by
Leeds envisages a continuing expansion of the
road programme, but would not involve grant
allocations to the city of a totally different order
from those which can be reasonably expected
under such a programme. In fact, the five year
rolling programme approved by the Minister

of Transport is in broad agreement with the scale

of investment necessary for the Leeds 1981
Highway Plan.

The primary road network must be capable of
achievement within these limitations but must
at the same time have sufficient capacity to meet
the future demand upon it without congestion.
The general shape of this network is illustrated by
Figure 5. Its main elements are a system of urban
motorways connecting with the national trunk
road and motorway system, providing free-flow
conditions for access to the business and in-
dustrial areas and for distribution for other routes
serving districts within Leeds and beyond its
borders. Plate 4 and Figure 6 illustrate the
Inner Ring Motorway.

Implications of the network

The limitations on the scale of the network in the
interests of omcticabihty have implications of
fundamental importance in the shaping of the
city's policies.

(a) Some use must continue to be made of
existing main roads within the primary road
network as shown in Figure 7. This has the
advantage of reducing the scale of disruption
imposed on the city by construction of the
network, and will help the improved road system
to serve suburban centres and lateral distributors.

It has the disadvantage thet something less
than ideal planning solutions on environmental
grounds may have to be accepted in some
established areas, but at the same time this will be
offset by the environmental improvement made
possible elsewhere. But with the general shape
of the network made clear, it provides the context
for the way in which traffic management and
planning policies should evolve so as to enable
existing streets which must be retained as part of
the network to fulfil their function effectively.

Figure 5 Roads and communities

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Existing Roads
including improved
existing roads

New Roads on new
I alignments proposed
before 1981

LANCtSHIRE

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iHLUlt

1

I

Figure? Use of existing roads

(b> It has to be accepted from the outset that the
practicable network cannot provide sufficient
capacity to accommodate the future potential
demand for car use at peak hours. In other words,
as car ownership grows, the improved network
would inevitably become as congested as the
present one unless steps were taken to prevent
this. A measure of control over the future volume
of traffic using the network is required, which
means, quite simply, that a proportion of people
who may in the future wish to use their cars
for work journeys will not be able to do so. It
means also that these people must be provided
with an efficient and acceptable alternative form
of transport. The combined effect of these
policies is that, although there will be some
limitation on the use of private cars for work
journeys, the network will permit considerably
more private car use than at present but yet
produce conditions where public transport and
the use of the private car for shopping and
business journeys will be encouraged. An early
decision on this has made it possible to adopt
interim policies to ensure that effective measures
are introduced progressively so that the situation
does not get out of hand during the time when
the road network is being developed and an
adequate public transport system is being
provided. A failure to take adequate steps
sufficiently early could lead to a situation where
drastic remedial measures would have to be taken
(c) The role of public transport can now be seen
in a new light. Its future function extends beyond
the need to provide for the young, the old, the
disabled and those who for one reason or another
do not use cars, and becomes an essential com-
ponent in an overall transportation plan particu-
larly in providing an effective service for home/
work journeys during peak periods.

The adoption of the above principles leads to
the necessity of integrated policies in the fields of
Public Transport, Parking, Traffic Management

and Planning Policies generally. The following
paragraphs illustrate the way in which these
policies are shaped and given direction by the
objectives already decided upon and by the
scale of physical change which is deemed
practicable.

Perking Policy:

The balance between public transport
and private transport

Since all private car journeys end at a parking
or garaging space, it follows that it is through
the exercise of a policy for the control of perking
provision in its total quantity, its disposition
and the use to which it is put, that it is possible
to give priority of access to private cars used
for essential purposes such as business and
shopping journeys and to seta limit to the
growth in the amount of private car commuting
at a point when total peak hour traffic demand
is at a level which is within the capacity of the
projected highway system.

In Leeds this policy means the control of
parking capacity, whether on-street or off-street,
within the central business area and the main
industrial area, the two areas in which by 1 981 it
is expected that there will be employment for
1 63,000 workers. The expected division, by mode,
of their journeys to work is shown in Figure 8.

Priority of access to essential users means the
provision of some 8,000 car spaces on and
off-street for short stay parking (ie up to 2J
hours) within the central area, close to offices,
shops and warehouses and linked into the
pedestrian ways. For the commuter the Council's
policy is to control the total quantity of long stay
parking, its situation and also the charges 10
be made. The total provision to be made for
commuter journeys is 1 1 ,400 spaces serving the

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central business area and 7,200 spaces for the
main industrial area. Allowing for appropriate
occupancy rates this quantity sets the limit to the
growth in usage of private car transport at
approximately 20 per cent of the work journeys,
the balance of commuting being by public road
transport and other means. The balance is
planned to ensure that the peak hour demand is
within the highway capacity which can be pro-
vided in a realistic plan and also means that the
remaining demand for public transport is sufficient
to support an efficient public transport service
at satisfactory frequencies.

It is the policy of the Leeds City Council that the

charges for commuter parking shall reach a level
which will be not less than the economic cost of
their provision and operation and that the com-
muter car parks for the central business area shall
be situated around the periphery of the central
business area, so as to reserve access into the
centre for more essential traffic. Any attempt to
accommodate commuter parking within the
central area would exacerbate the difficulties of
dealing with peak hour traffic, would complicate
the provision of access between the central area
and the primary network, and detract from the
declared objective of building up the environ-
mental quality of the central area.

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Public transport

With the growth in private car usage for work
journeys being limited to 20 per cent of the total,
the major peak hour role of public road transport
is to cater for some 66 per cent of the work
journeys to the central areas. More and more of
the passengers will become owners of cars,
and the aim of public transport policy must be to
ensure that despite this, the services continue
to be regarded as a convenient and acceptable
means of making work journeys. The residual
demand for public transport should be planned at
a point where, so far as possible, it should still
be possible to operate an economic service.

Speed and reliability of service, and good
accessibility both at the home and work ends of
the journeys, with suitable waiting facilities,
combined with vehicles offering a high standard
of comfort and convenience, particularly on the
longer journeys, are the essential features
needed. The whole policy of striving for a balance
between the use of public and private transport
has as one of its main objectives the creetion
and maintenance of traffic conditions in which the
operation of effective bus services are possible.

To meet these needs not only Is it necessary
greatly to improve the service which public
transport can give but also to ensure that traffic
management policies and planning policies
in the layout of new estates, redeveloped
industrial areas and the central business area are
such that public transport is given some priority of
movement to reduce round journey times, that
it is able to penetrate into the heart of the areas
generating movements and that terminals or bus
points are sited in areas of high density
development so that walking times from home or
workplace to bus points are as short as possible
for the greatest number of people. The objective Is
to make total journey time (ie walking time
plus vehicle journey time) as short as possible and

of the same order of magnitude as total time by
private transport.

In addition to the normal inter- and intra-district
bus services the Council plan to develop these
new forms of passenger road service:

Express Bus Services using the primary road
network and providing non-stop fast services
between home and working areas.

City Centre Buses, ie small buses providing
short movements within the central business

Park-Bide Services from outer suburban inter-
change pointsto the central areas.

The express bus services are the essential
component of the transportation plan based on a
limitation on the growth of private car usage
for work journeys. The principles on which they
are based are shown in Figures 9 and 1 0 and it
will be seen that it is intended to run separate
services to and from the industrial belt which can
by-pass the central area. Figure 1 1 shows
diagrammatically the servicing in the main
industrial areas by motorway distributor network
with a series of terminals at local services centres
from which there will be short pedestrian links
to high intensity industrial development. Figure 1 6
(to ba referred to later) shows the application
of the principles in new residential areas. The full
benefits of improved journey times will not be
achieved until the components of the highway
network are completed but the first express
service to be introduced which is using a partially
improved radial route has cut the peak hour
journey time from 28 minutes to 1 8 minutes. This
service has not only proved a great attraction to
commuters but has also shown itself to be
economically viable through the increase in the
number of journeys now possible for each bus
in the peek period.

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□

City Boundary
Main Communities
industriai Area
Central Area
Suburban Shopping Centre
Kstriet Shopping Centre tmtaii
Industrial Shop and Bank Precirct
Main Open Space— Pubiic Parks
Express Routes to Central Area

■ ■■ Express Routes to Industrial Area
caoo Percolator Services
9 Centrai Terminals and Intsrthanges

Figures Public transport

THE NETWORK

THE COMMUNITY

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re 11 Roads and industry

Planning and traffic management in the
central area

The combined effect of the construction of the
primary road network and the parking policy
already described is intended to remove from the
central area all 'through' traffic having no direct
business there, the greater part of the peak
hour commuter traffic and, consequently, to free
the centre from the presence of cars parked
for long periods during the day. The remaining
traffic will consist of that needed to senrice
premises in the central area, private cars visiting
the centre for shopping, business or other pur-
poses involving a relatively short stay, and, of
course, the bus services.

This simplification of the traffic requirements
opens the way for the creation of environmental
areas within the central area, with limited vehicular
access, and a road pattern comprising internal
distribution roads and access roads to building
groups. In these conditions, the objectives of
traffic management policy are:

(a) a major enhancement of the amenity, safety
and freedom of movement of pedestrians ;

(b) the development of one-way streets :

(i) to improve capacity:

(ii) to simplify traffic movements at
intersections, both internally and at points of
access to the primary network:

(Hi) to discourage the use of streets in the
central area for 'through' movements, and thus
promote the use of the primary network for
its primary function and also, where necessary,
to provide priority for public transport.

The possibilities of environmental improvement
through the simplification of traffic movement
is of great importance for the well being of the
central area. Although some areas of the city
centre can be and are being redeveloped com-

prehensively with virtual separation of pedestrian
and vehicle movements, there will be many other
areas of the city where only limited rebuilding will
take place over a number of years. It is here that
the benefits of a comprehensive traffic manage-
ment system can be seen. Some existing streets
can be closed to most classes of traffic during the
main part of the day so that they may become
effective parts of the system of pedestrian ways
linking up with those newly provided in com-
prehensive redevelopment areas. Leeds City
Council took powers in a Local Act to enable such
traffic regulation to be undertaken and there
are general powers available along these lines in
the new Transport Act. Plates 5 and 6 show the
contrast between a busy shopping street in Leeds
with an intermircture of vehicle and pedestrian
usage and a similar street in Essen which has
been converted into a pedestrian street forthe
main shopping hours of the day. Plate? (referred
to later) shows conflict also in a suburban
shopping area.

Reference has been made to city centra bus
services and it is the intention to provide small
buses circulating through the central area
and penetrating at low speed into pedestrian
streets. These mini buses will serve peripheral car
parks and express bus terminals. Figures 1 2. 1 3
1 4 and 1 5 show diagrammatically the way in
which the central area street pattern can be
planned so as to provide for the needs of various
classes of traffic, including pedestrians. 'These
plans represent the likely situation in Leeds as
at 1 981 but include some measures already
accomplished or likely to he put into effect in the
intervening period. It will be clear that a traffic
policy providingfor all these classes of traffic
must he evolutionary in character taking ad-
vantage of various road projects as they are
completed, and leading in and blending in with
areas of comprehensive development as they
are implemented.

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Express Bus Routes

Express Bus Tarminels

li^i Links & Inner

^ City Distribulor Services

$ Stopping Points

Seale 1:2500

B Long StOY Ca' Parks

. North South

Distributor Service
> East West
"r* Distributor Service

® Stopping Points

Figure15 Central Area masterplan
transport. Comi
and city centre

Express Bus Routes
I Express Bus Terminals

Scale 1:2S00

Figurel 5 Central Area masterpi
transport- Commuter
and city centre servic

I Long Stay Car Parks

. North South

Distributor Service

. East West

Distributor Service

® Stopping Points

ecP?mage digitised by

Public

Traffic management and development
control on the primary network

To some extent it is necessary to rely on the
continued use of an improved existing main road
system in the evolution of the primary road
network. The aims of traffic management policy
here must be to ensure that they are enabled to
fulfil this function as effectively as possible.

This involves strict control over kerbside parking
along them, the extension of the clear-way
principle and the prohibition of the more awkward
turning and crossing movements, and the
segregation of the pedestrians. There will be
considerable scope also as traffic increases for
tidal flow arrangements during the peak hour,
allocating the greater proportion of the available
road space to the dominant direction of travel.

On these routes also planning policies can
be used as time goes by to improve their effective
operation as main traffic routes, by the progressive
reduction of access, and the provision of space
for essential parking off the highway.

The planning of new residential areas

It has been indicated earlierthat a substantial
programme of housing renewal is needed in
the city. The scale of this is such that it is possible
to think in terms of creating new communities
or districts with populations of from 10.000 to
40.000 people. Here again the need to ensure
that these can be well served by the public
transport system exerts a powerful influence on
the way in which they are laid out as shown
in the diagram in Figure 1 6. This leads to forms of
development undertaken in accordance with
the following principles:

(a) The adoption, as a first requirement, of a
public transport terminal or main loading point
sited within the area for maximum accessibility
30

with a convenient and rapid road link to the
primary network.

(b) Land allocation where needed for any
required local centre, immediately adjacent to the
transport terminal, to provide for the community
shopping needs and social activities.

(c) Development of a system of pedestrian ways
as the main routes radiating from the local centre
and transport terminal and spreading through
the residential area in positions most suitable for
landscaping and any vertical separation which
may be needed. Some of these pedestrian routes
would pass outside the community area to
provide links via segregated crossings of the
primary road network with the suburban district
centre, with any nearby employment area and with
adjoining communities.

(d) The provision of relatively high density
development within a five minute walking distance
of the transport terminal with lower densities
further away from the centre together with
recreational and amenity open space and school
sites.

(e) The provision of a separate system of access
roads providing servicing for buildings and for
parking areas or garages.

(f) Complete integration of landscaping, buildings
and pedestrian ways, an example of which is
shown in Plate 8.

The application of these principles leads to
conditions most likely to encourage the use of
public transport, and to contribute to the
successful development of the local centre and
the general amenity, safety and wellbeing of the
people who live there.

The problem of established residential areas

(a) A number of problems arise in the substantial

8re.s of residentiH developmentwhero renewal Figure 16 Publicfransport end housing

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Public Open Space

i I Residential
1 1 High Density Residential

Bus to City

Shops and Public
Tiansport Terminals

■ ■■ Pedestrian

III Primary Pedestrian
Motorway
Distributer Road

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shopping facilities and where a limited amount of
local office accommodation could sometimes
be provided.

is unlikely to take place before 19S1 but where the
environment can be expected to deteriorate
through the increasing use of private cars. The
most important one is concerned with the
established district shopping centre, where
pedestrian movement, access and parking is often
in conflict with main road traffic, where there
may already be a limited pressure for development
arising from an increased demand for suburban

(b) In Leeds and in many other larger towns there
is a number of such suburban centres. Harehills
and Halton are two typical ones each astride
a principal road, the first illustrated In Plate 7
and the second shown in Figures 1 7 and 1 8.

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|ure18 Halton neighbourhood centre,
as proposed with major road
diverted to create a pedestrian
precinct as the nucleus of the
new shopping development

Printed image digitised by the Unive

A master plan for redevelopment js desirable,
providing for parking and public transport, setting
out the guiding principles for precinctal shopping
and defining the main lines of segregated
pedestrian access from adjacent residential areas.
The difficulty arises in the time scale of
redevelopment related to the availability of
resources. The level of demand by retailers and
developers will not normally be strong enough to
ensure an adequate return for the investment
needed for total redevelopment, and realistic
charges for parking accommodation may
necessitate widespread control of parking and
enforcement in surrounding residential areas. In
Leeds it will be necessary to envisage a fairly long
time scale for redevelopment in which the most
important element will be the renewal of the
main traffic route (as shown in the plans for
Halton C-D-A. in Figures 17 and 18), or,
alternatively, the displacement or partial
displacement of the shopping centre.

The separation of the main traffic route from
the shopping area offers the opportunity to com-
mence work on the development of a pedestrian
precinct but this may well have to be evolutionary
in character with interim facilities for servicing.

The final plan as at Haiton will often retain sub-
stantial individual properties or groups of proper-
ties within the overall development

(c) A second problem in residential estates relates
to through routes which, because of congestion
on the main roads, have become established in
purely residential streets, often carrying con-
siderable volumes of commuter traffic. Although
much of the traffic may be attracted back to the
primary road network when the appropriate sec-
tion is built, it seems likely that in the absence
of disincentives a considerable flow will remain
to the detriment of what should be purely resi-
dential streets. Traffic management systems must
be devised which offer an impediment to the
through movement.

(d) The third problem arises in the older residen-
tial areas where redevelopment is likely in the
longer term but where measures are needed to
improve living conditions in the meantime. In-
dividual houses can be improved, and the City
Council's policy is to encourage such improve-
mertts in area schemes. There is a strong case for
improving the environment at the same time in
these areas where there is usually a regular
system of parallel streets and terrace houses with
occasional intersecting streets. Clearance or use
of other available land can provide landscaped
play spaces and parking areas and this should be
accompanied by a reorganisation of the pattern of
vehicle access so that some streets can be con-
verted into pedestrian ways, forming part of the
main pedestrian system of the areas, and other
streets can be converted into culs-de-sacto
discourage unnecessary through movements.

When possible priority in expenditure should be
given to expenditure in respect of works which
can be retained if and when the area comes to be
redeveloped. The Leeds Council are gradually
building up a series of structure plans for older
residential districts in which the main lines of
future principal pedestrian ways are laid down
together with public transport routes and internal
distributor roads. The more important pedestrian
routes link up with a town system of pedestrian
ways as shown diagrammaticaliy in Figure 1 9
and within each of these inner districts there will
be some areas of housing to be comprehensively
redeveloped and others to be improved and
retained for a considerable number of years.
Because investment resources are limited it is a
question of determining a reasonable scale
of investment and priorities. In conjunction with
the two Ministries an experiment is being
conducted to assess the value of a minimum cost
solution fora small area at Burley Lodge Road
where expenditure (at least in the first phase) is to
be confined to environmental improvement
through traffic management measures only.

Figure 19 Pedestrian routes

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$ District Shopping Centre
• Neighbourhoad Shopping Centre
Industrial Deft
I Peril Land

tiii:iiiiii Primary Pedestrian System
I Motorway

Summary

Succinctly put the main principles which arise
from the Leeds Approach in the view of the
Council are as follows:

1 The city faces a large problem of urban
renewal which affects residential, industrial and
commercial areas of the city and this problem of
renewal also involves the provision of a new
road system to meet modern traffic requirements.
The problem, however, is one problem of renewal
and this means that any plan adopted in order

to meet the needs of all the facts of the problem
must be a plan integrated to take account of all
the various factors involved. The Approach is,
therefore, a single minded one calling for co-
ordination of planning, and execution, of a high
order.

2 The primary road network will be required in
its complete form if it Is to be effective and the
completion of it must be planned within a reason-
able period of time. This essentially limits the form
of the network both as to its cost and as to the
other factors which must be taken into account

in planning its execution and completion.

3 The approach to an integrated plan must be a
realistic one. not only on the grounds of the cost
and what can be afforded both locally and nation-
ally. but also on the grounds of what the city can
afford in the shape of the scale of disturbance
which Is involved.

4 The scale of the primary road network is linked
to the decision which must be taken in relation

to limitation on private car access for work jour-
neys. The decision which is taken must leave a
sufficient residual demand for public transport to
make it possible to operate an effective
service.

5 The role of public transport is notthat of an
ancillary service to be linked to the planning
or other facts of the renewal problem but it is a
vital and integral part of the whole plan. The
planning in every sphere must be such that the
public transport system which is chosen must
be able to operate in conditions where it is an
effective, efficient, and asfar as possible, economic
alternative to the use of the private car for work
journeys.

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